United We Stand: Class struggle in colonial Australia

In the state-run prison that was early New South Wales, pockets of capitalism sprang up like sturdy weeds. with them came wage labour and class struggle. Australian workers were organisiing well before the gold rushes, and later a mass labour movement confronted the employers across the continent, opening the way for bitter confrontations.

Controversy surrounds the colonial labour movement because of its racism and sexism, but this book sheets home the main blame for both reactionary ideolog...